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COBIT 5 Principles and Enablers Applied to Strategic Planning

COBIT FOCUS

COBIT 5 Principles and Enablers

Applied to Strategic Planning
Author: David Mondragon Tapia, COBIT Foundation, ITIL Expert, ISO/IEC 20000,
PRINCE2
Date Published: 20, April 2015

Can COBIT 5 principles and enablers be applied to support strategic planning exercises?

Two years ago in Mexico City, work was underway at an organization that offers managed print services and
document solutions. This organization decided to start an effort to reinforce its governance and
management model, starting with strategic planning. For this organization, planning and strategic
alignment, among their many different aspects, were something relatively new and out of practice, but
necessary in order to continue organizational growth (which was greater than 10-12 percent annually during
the preceding 5 years).

Even when the organization started this effort, with the support of a specialized consulting rm, the
executive group and the organizational culture were not yet ready to adopt and adapt to these new
concepts. Prior to this engagement, the organization’s strategic planning was basically a document de ned
by the owner and president of the company.

Given this scenario and the organization’s desire to run a new, practical, short, participative and renewed
exercise, the decision was made, with the help of a consultant, to create a whole new approach to review
and adjust the strategic plan.

The initial idea was to choose an alternative way to run the exercise; learning from previous mistakes,
revising the original approach and strategies, and combining different techniques and methods, applied in
an integrated and simple way, to generate the company’s updated strategic planning. But this time, the
exercise would add a particular variant: concepts from COBIT 5, speci cally, 2 of the 5 principles and the 7
enablers, in order to reinforce important concepts among the executive group and other organizational
areas. The organization would adopt from COBIT 5 its:

Holistic approach

End-to-end vision

Relevant enablers (from the 7) that apply to the executive strategies and tactics for the company and
employees

Methods and Techniques Applied to the Strategic Planning

Exercise
After the initial idea, the next step in this effort was to document the full strategy (methods and techniques
integrated), together with the development of all the necessary materials and documents. Then, upcoming
activities such as the number of sessions and the type of deliveries in which they will be requested to
participate were communicated to the commercial, operations, nance and human resources areas, among
others (e.g., the executive group). They were also asked to prepare some other information and data related
to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) matrix; statistics; history; and trends.

The documented strategy to undertake the strategic planning exercise was integrated using methods and
techniques including:

1. Parts of the general method:

Hoshin Kanri planning to guide the whole planning exercise

SWOT matrix to generate strategies and tactics among the executive group

Balanced scorecard (BSC) methodology to classify the indicators and strike a balance between hard
and soft aspects

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix to analyze the organization’s current situation in the market,
according to its product and service portfolio

2. General planning principles:

Governance and management based in COBIT 5 to de ne speci c principles for the executive group to
orient, increase and clarify the vision to create and align strategies with tactics

Indicator system to de ne the 4 basic elements that at least all key performance indicators (KPIs)
must integrate in the scorecard (purpose, formula, source of data and frequency)

Information Mapping to set some speci c principles for the executive group in order to limit or restrict
the number of strategies and tactics generated
3. General planning information:

Strategic plan for the period from 2013-17

Sales forecast for the period from 2013-18

Market study from a research rm in Mexico

Additionally, some other techniques were considered. These techniques included:

Strategic cascading—Part of the Hoshin Kanri method and consisting of splitting from the vision down to
the objectives and business goals. Both aspects are de ned by the president of the organization and
then from the objectives and goals, continuing down to the strategies and KPIs.

SWOT crossing—Part of the SWOT analysis and the Hoshin Kanri method. It consists of generating
strategies and KPIs, then tactics and indicators (cascading), both based on the SWOT matrix and other
data/information elaborated on or gathered by the executive group.

Principles and/or Enablers Used When Planning in an

Organization
Once all the methods and techniques to be used in the strategic planning exercise were established, the
next step was to establish the guiding principles for the generation of strategies and tactics, with the
support of the executive group. These principles, based on COBIT 5, were established as follows:

Principle 1:  Adoption of an end-to-end approach or an approach to thinking throughout the whole

organization. The executive group was asked to take into consideration all the internal and external
aspects, elements, areas and stakeholders relevant for the achievement of the strategies and tactics.

Principle 2:  Implementation of a holistic thought process considering all areas and their
interrelationships. The executive group was tasked with taking into consideration the organizational
aspects of the customer (the 7 enablers) in order to de ne good, complete and integrated strategies and
tactics. COBIT 5’s 7 enablers are:

1. Principles, Policies and Frameworks

2. Processes

3. Organizational Structures

4. Culture, Ethics and Behavior

5. Information

6. Services, Infrastructure and Applications

7. People, Skills and Competencies

 Principle 3:  Generation of 5 to 9 objectives, strategies or tactics as a maximum at each respective
cascading level. With this principle, the idea among the executive group was to set a parameter for
brainstorming or idea generation, in order to limit or restrict the size and complexity of the strategic plan.

The Result When Combining COBIT 5 With the Strategic

Planning Exercise
After taking on this exercise through 2014, the nal result achieved by combining these techniques,
methods and principles for strategic planning was a complete, integrated, participative and aligned plan that
set the foundations for a directed, controlled and e cient operation.

Now, when this exercise is repeated with the same formula, the planning sessions with executives are
shorter; the executive group is more proactive and more focused on business goals—armed with a clear
understanding of a holistic and end-to-end approach. Another bene t to the organization is an
understanding of what elements to consider while thinking or generating strategies and tactics. Over and
above these bene ts, the organization saw great results in 2014, indicating that almost 90 percent of its
areas achieved nearly 80 percent of their objectives and goals set forth in the strategic plan. As a result, the
expectations for 2015 are high.

One nal lesson learned from this case is the fact that now the organization has a clear idea of the
responsibilities of the president and the board, as well as the responsibilities of the management body. This
simple change improves the organization with regard to governance and management.

David Mondragon Tapia, COBIT Foundation, ITIL Expert, ISO/IEC

20000, PRINCE2
Is an industrial engineer of systems at the Technologic Institute of Monterrey, Mexico. He has more than 12
years of experience working as a consultant, trainer, writer and lecturer in the areas of technological best
practices and process management. He can be reached at dmondragont@yahoo.com.

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